Must Be Citizen Centered

must be cItIzen centered One of the main problems of e-governance is that it is oriented toward educated young and computer-savvy people. Therefore, one of the major challenges is to make e-governance citizenship-oriented, reaching out to all the people rather than the privileged few. In terms of internet use, there is a digital divide. The poor, the elderly and the less educated still lag behind the wealthy, young, and educated in terms of computer use. At the same time, poor developing countries lag behind the developed world in Internet use. However, “the digital divide may turn out to be only a “transition effect” disappearing if computer and Web access becomes as universal as telephones, radio, and television have become. At the moment, though, the divide is very real and poses a difficult dilemma for governments” (Clayton and Streib 2005, p. 259). Still, there has been a significant increase in the use of the Internet. Based on UN Survey (2016), countries have made progress in Online Service Delivery: “The Survey shows that since 2014 the number of countries with very high OSI (Online Survey Index) has increased from 22 to 32 whereas the number of countries with low OSI dropped from 71 to 53. Higher levels of online service tend to be positively correlated with a country’s income level. The majority of the high-income countries are at the top 50% of the OSI, while the majority of low-income countries are at the lowest end of the OSI. However, as countries make advances in their e-government reforms, more developing countries feature in the groups with higher levels of OSI” (UN Survey 2016).

The rate of digital use is dependent on the levels of economic development and education. Developed countries with a higher level of education and income have a higher proportion of digital users. The developing countries can make significant strides in making the digital resources available to the poor in different places and forums. Even in the United States, large numbers of people make use of the computers available in public libraries. It is impossible for developing countries to achieve a high level of economic development in a short period of time to make internet services available to everyone. Still, the developing countries can make the internet services available through the use of other avenues like public libraries and schools: “Ultimately, the extent to which e-governance develops in a country is a function of the collective national and local capital supplying IT services and of informal social and human capital creating a demand for e-governance. Supply requires public officials and citizens to have access